Seminary Studies

Because community life, work, and prayer will remain important throughout a monk’s life and ministry as a priest, they are critical to the formation of a monk studying for the priesthood. Saint Benedict even calls the ordained monk to “subject himself all the more to the discipline of the rule” (Rule of Benedict 62).

Saint John’s Seminary, together with Saint John’s School of Theology, provides monastic seminarians with education and formation that are distinctively Benedictine. At Saint John’s, priesthood studies knit together the Rule of Benedict and the Program of Priestly Formation in a unique and effective way, allowing monks to prepare for priestly and pastoral ministry in their communities and for their communities’ apostolates, while embracing their religious vows more deeply.

Since its founding in 1857, Saint John’s Seminary has been preparing monks for the priesthood. This tradition of sound scholarship and pastoral formation has changed with the times but has not diminished in quality. Saint John’s can offer monks wishing to undertake seminary studies a program that is designed for building on and contributing to the monastic life of the home monastery so that in all things, God may be glorified.